In Gujarat an adaptation of YAM is currently underway. After many months of discussions and deliberations on language use, including translations and back translations into English, the youth materials are finally ready to be tested in the real world. A pre-pilot roll-out was conducted in one rural and one urban school in the Mehsana district. Another pilot school and a focus group with young people participating in YAM is forthcoming in March.
Earlier this year, the local YAM team lead by Sadhvi Krishnamoorthy, Gauri Damle, Chetan Kusalkar, Aakanksha Kulkarni and Nikhil Jain presented YAM to a group of eight adults working with youth in the local community. The professionals learned about the program and tried out some role-plays while giving valuable feedback for the Gujarati version of YAM. They reported that the participants gave suggestions of culturally appropriate examples and discussed how to adjust the language so that it is understandable both in local dialect and written Gujarati. As we often see with adults, they enthusiastically participated in the role plays (some pictures of this below!).
The goal of the focus group was to hold an open-ended conversation about YAM touching on everything from the YAM method to the content of the materials, language use, to topics missing or that could be expressed differently. A protocol for how to ask questions and make sure that all participants were included in the conversation was prepared in advance by Camilla, Vladimir, and the SPIRIT team. The questions worked as support to lead the conversation forward and many other topics surfaced. A written account of the adult focus group discussion is being prepared and we are getting ready to discuss the feedback from both the youth and adult focus groups and decide on modifications to the program.
We believe that adapting the YAM materials and content so that they are sensitive and appropriate to the local context is of utmost importance and will make sure to share more details about the Gujarati adaptation in future posts.